Data compression is used in communications and computer networking to store, transmit, and reproduce information efficiently. Modern compression techniques, such as video compression, often rely on predictive coding and compress data in a manner that may make random access impossible without decoding a large portion of the data. This may also hamper searching and/or other forms of computation without decoding.
It would be advantageous to have new mechanism for encoding and decoding data that achieves compression efficiencies and yet facilitates random access and/or other forms of computation.
Similar reference numerals may have been used in different figures to denote similar components.